Venue

Prague Shakuhachi Festival 2013 will be held in the building of Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague or HAMU for short. This building is located at the very heart of Prague’s old city centre. It stands right against one of the Prague’s most renown historical treasures, the St.Nicolas Church (Kostel sv. Mikuláše).

After the Velvet Revolution in 1989 the Lichtenstein and Hartig Palaces underwent a thorough reconstruction which maintained its historical spirit and, at same time, created a place suitable for teaching music on large scale and at the highest level.

The complex of HAMU features several concert venues, both traditional and alternative. The festival opening concert on August 23 will take placein the large courtyard. The evening concerts will take place in the so called Gallery which has excellent acoustics and can take up to 150 people. Furthermore, there are beautiful alternative venues which include the medieval tower and a secluded garden in second courtyard.

Each classroom is equipped with a concert piano, one of the rooms even features the famous Alois Hába’s quarter-tone piano. This is an important aid to teacher’s explanation as many of the intervals (and micro-intervals) can be easily demonstrated. Double doors ensure that sound from one classroom doesn’t carry to the next. We will also make use of a lecture hall where lecturers will be free to use projector and good speakers to explain their points and show their findings.

We are very glad that, in 2010, we managed to secure such a wonderful and suitable venue for the festival. The people from HAMU proved to be very co-operative and HAMU has become one of the festival partners. We could not wish for a better location.